Pipe-cleaning head



A ril 30, 1968 w. MAASBERG ETAL 3,

PIPE-CLEANING HEAD Filed June 2, 1966 I s Sheets-Sheet 1 WolfgangMaasberg 0H0 Tat/fer INVENTORS.

Attorney April 3o, 1968 Filed June 2, 1966 on N w. MAASBERG ETALPIPE-CLEANING HEAD a Shets-Sheet r.

Fig.2

Wolfgang Maasberg Offo Taijfer IN VEN'IORS.

BY A 3w April 30, 1968 w. MAA SBERG ETAL 3,380,461

PIPE'CLEANING HEAD Filed June 2, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet .5

Fig.3

Wolfgang Maasberg Offo Tel/fer INVENTOR s.

United States Patent 3,380,461 PIPE-CLEANING HEAD Wolfgag Maasberg,Duisburg, and Otto Taufer, Rumeln- Kaldenhausen, Germany, assignors toFirma Woma- Apparatehau W. Maasberg 8: Co. G.m.b.H., Rheinhausen,Germany, a corporation of Germany Filed June 2, 1966, Ser. No. 554,906Claims priority, application Germany, June 2, 1965, W 39,267 9 Claims.(Cl. 134-167) Our present invention relates to a device for the cleaningof waste pipe and, more particularly, to a selfpropelled nozzle or headfor the cleaning of pipes, ducts and waste-water conduits usinghigh-velocity streams of liquid.

It has been proposed heretofore to clean waste conduits, containingcaked or loosely adherent sludge, sediment, stones and other solidarticles with the aid of a self-propelled nozzle or head affixed to aflexible conduit and having a plurality of rearwardly directed jets ofhighvelocity liquid. In such systems, the reaction force upon the headpropels it through the conduit while entraining the attached length offlexible pipe therealong. The water jets concurrently loosen adherentmaterials and carry them away through the pipe. When the head isretracted by drawing upon the pipe or a cable afiixed thereto, in thedirection of advance of the head, the rearwardly directed streams ofliquid act to scoop sediment and contaminants away from the walls of thewaste-water duct and thereby provide an additional loosening andcleaning effect.

It has hitherto been the practice to form such heads as bodies ofrotation centered upon an axis while the nozzle apertures are equispacedangularly about this axis of the nozzle body and have respective axesincluding acute angles with the body axis while being open rearwardly ofthe body. The liquid jets thus are uniformly distributed about the axisof the body and are directed symmetrically against all of the walls ofthe waste-water duct. The cleaning effect of these jets is thus appliedsubstantially identically to all of the wall surfaces of the wasteconduit as the latter is traversed by the head. While this arrangementhas been found to be of advantage where the degree of sedimentation isnot excessive and where the walls of the conduit are substantiallyuniformly coated with a loosely adherent layer of sludge, considerabledifficulty is involved in the use of these devices in waste conduitswhich have been markedly constricted by the sludge and sediment andwhere such contaminants are nonuniformly deposited upon the walls of theconduit. In practice, therefore, it has not been possible to usecylindrical nozzles or bodies of the character described in larger wasteconduits in which the sedimentation along the floor of the conduit ismuch greater than along the lateral and upper wall portions and whereinthe crosssection of the waste conduit has been substantially reduced bythe deposits. In fact, it has been found that a large proportion of thecleaning liquid, which is dispensed by the head at high velocity andpressure and thus in substantial volume, is used ineffectively to loosendeposits along the lateral and upper wall portions which may not becontaminated at all or, at most, are covered with sludge to a muchlesser extent than the floor of the duct. For this reason, the deviceshave left the conduits unclean and obstructed along the floor whereheavier sediments tend to accumulate in spite of the fact that the headsand the pumping means communicating therewith were dimensioned todispense very large volumes of cleaning liquid. Furthermore, thenonuniform obstruction of the waste conduit, in the manner indicated,has prevented the self-propelled nozzle from passing eifectively throughthe conduit and thereby increased the time required for the cleaning ofsuch conduits.

It is, therefore, the principal object of the present invention toprovide an improved head for the cleaning of waste conduit with the aidof high-velocity jets of the cleaning liquid whereby the aforementioneddisadvantages can be obviated.

A more specific object of this invention is to provide an improvedself-propelled nozzle head for the dislodging of sediment, sludge andother contaminants from heavily obstructed waste conduits in which theliquid utilization and the rate of cleaning are sharply increased bycomparison with earlier devices.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide a self-propelledhead, for the purposes described, which can pass rapidly and easilythrough conduits nonuniformly constricted by contaminants, which iscapable of dislodging even relatively heavy sediments, and whichoperates optimally with respect to deposits upon the floor of the wasteconduits.

These objects and others which will be apparent hereinafter areattained, in accordance with the present invention, in a self-propelledhead for the cleaning of waste conduits which has a nozzle portionconnected with a guide portion forwardly of the nozzle portion in thedirection of movement of the nozzle, this guide portion being offlattened configuration while the bulb-shaped nozzle portion is providedwith an array of nozzles whose axes are coplanar and include an acuteangle (converging rearwardly with respect to the direction of movementof the head) with the guide surface or skid formed by the guide portion.Thus, the plane of the rearwardly directed nozzles includes with theplane of the guide surface an acute angle whereas the nozzle axesinclude respective acute angles with a transverse median plane throughthe body and preferably intersecting at the forwardly convex or roundededge of the guide portion.

Thus, when the guide surface or skid of the body rests upon the sludge,sediment or other contaminants on the floor of the waste conduit, thenozzles are directed rearwardly and downwardly to provide a sheet-flowof cleaning liquid rearwardly and downwardly to increase the scoopingeffect while propelling the head forwardly and somewhat upwardly topermit it to climb over the sediment even though the latter maynonuniformly obstruct the channel. The round forward end of the body issubstantially flat and lies in the plane of the nozzles and the fittingprovided for connecting the pipe to the rearward end of the body at thenozzle portion. This pipe, which is connected to the several nozzles bysuitable ducts or passages formed in the nozzle portion, serves tosupply the nozzles with water or other cleaning liquid at high velocityand at elevated pressures; for this purpose, the pipe is connected inthe conventional manner with a pump means which may be maintainedexternally of the conduit to which access is gained via manholes,cleanout traps or branches of the conduit normally provided for thispurpose.

Intermediate the rounded forward edge of the body and its rearwardextremity, we provide a multiplicity of ribs, extending transversely tothe plane of the nozzle axes, and Widening in the direction of movementof the head so as to constitute the guide or skid surface on theunderside of said body and a corresponding guide surface along the upperside thereof. In this manner, the selfpropelled body is guided byparallel ribs in the fashion of a skid or sled with respect to sedimenton the bottom of the conduit and with respect to any deposits along theupper surfaces thereof and the body will tend to assume a generallyhorizontal lie with slight upward inclination (in the direction ofadvance of the body) regardless of the manner in which the body isinserted into the conduit. The ribs form runners upon which the bodyrides with little chance of obstruction and substantially reducedfriction effect. In general, therefore, the guide portion of the bodymay be considered to be of platelike configuration with a plurality ofsimilar parallel runners transversely spaced apart on each side of theplate and extending in the direction of movement thereof. While it ismost advantageous to form the body with its nozzle portion and guideportion and with the runners unitarily (i.e., as one piece) from amoldable synthetic resin or by casting it from metal, it will beunderstood that the runners can be welded to the plate if so desired.When the plate is mentioned, therefore, it is intended to include both aplate-like member formed integrally with the runners and a separateplate to which the runners may be affixed by conventional techniques.Corresponding numbers of runners are symmetrically disposed along theopposite surfaces of the guide plate while the nozzle portion isconstituted by a bulb-like enlargement thereof at the rearward side ofthe body, this enlargement extending across the rearward end and havinga bore communicating as a manifold with the respective nozzles and withthe aforementioned pipe. The nozzles themselves diverge rearwardlyrelative to the transverse median plane of the body, at which the pipeis connected, in order to limit or correct any lateral or twistingmovement of the body in the plane of the plate as the body is insertedor moves through the conduit.

It has been found that a conduit-cleaning head of this characteradvances cleanly through even highly contaminated and almost completelyobstructed conduits while concentrating the jets of liquid, insheet-like configuration, upon the heaviest sediments. In its passagethrough the conduit, the other walls thereof are subjected to thecleaning action of the liquid which, since it is concentrated upon theheavier sediments on the fioor, is more effective in cleaning theconduit than has been possible heretofore. Furthermore, uponencountering severe obstructions, the arrangement of the skid plane withrespect to the nozzle plane ensures that the body will ride up over theobstruction and, upon clearing same, direct a sheet of liquid againstthe base of the obstruction to loosen it and free the conduit thereof.Upon retraction of the body, preferably by hydraulic means, a downwardstream of liquid scoops out sediment from the floor of the conduit andpermits such sediment to be carried away by the cleaning liquid.Substantially all of the liquid is used at the point where cleaning ismost required.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will become more readily apparent from the followingdescription, reference being made to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cleaning head, in accordance with thepresent invention, showing it in action in a conduit (partly brokenaway);

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the body, partly broken away; and

FIG. 3 is a side-elevational view of the device.

In the drawing we show a device for the cleaning of waste-waterconduits, diagrammatically represented at 1, which comprises ahigh-pressure water pipe 2 of the braided wall and flexible type whichis connected at a fitting 22 with a nozzle body generally represented at3. The body 3 is of generally fiat configuration and is formed with anenlarged rearward portion 23 within which a plurality of rearwardlydirected nozzles 4 (four such nozzles being shown here). The nozzles 4,as can be seen in greater detail from FIG. 2, comprise plugs 24, withconical apertures 25 open rearwardly to produce respective jets 26 ofliquid. The nozzle plugs 24 are threaded into respective apertures 27lying in a common plane (represented at in FIG. 3 and parallel to thepaper in FIG. 2) such that the axes 9 of the nozzles 4 are coplanar.

The nozzle portion 23 of the body 3 is unitarily connected with a guideportion 5 whose skid planes 6 (symmetrically disposed on opposite sidesof the plane 10 both of the body and the axes 9) are convergentrearwardly (FIG. 3) and intersect the plane 10 in acute angles 7 asrepresented in this latter figure. A suitable angle for this purpose, inaccordance with the invention, may be between 2 /2 and 10 and preferablyis about 5". Thus, when the guide portion 5 rests upon a surface alongits lower skid plane 6, the axes 9 of the nozzles 4 and their respectivejets are directly downwardly.

The bulb-like enlargement 23 at the rearward side of the body 3 isintegral with a guide plate 8 extending along the plane 18 and providedwith runners 11 transversely spaced and equal in number on each surfaceof the plate 8. These mutually parallel runners 11 have outer surfaces12 which define the skid planes 6 and lie in respective planes parallelto the median plane 28 transverse to the plate 8 and the plane of thepaper in FIG. 2. The runners 11 merge into the enlargement 23 and thusserve as flanges reinforcing the junction between the guide plate 8 andthe enlarged portion 23. The forward ends of the runners 12 on oppositesides of the guide plate 8 converge curvilinearly at 29 in the directionof movement (arrow 30) of the body 3 to permit the runners 11 to ride upupon any sediment in the path of the body.

As can be seen from FIG. 2, the passages 27 communicating with thenozzle plugs 24 open into the manifold bore 13 which lies in the plane10 but extends perpendicularly to the plane 28 and to the direction ofadvance of the body 3. A plug 15 is threaded into the open end of thebore 13 and can be welded in place.

The nozzles 4 are oriented symmetrically on opposite sides on thetransverse median plane 28 so that the inner nozzles 4 include angles 16with the median plane 28 while the outer nozzles 4 include angles 16'therewith. In the present embodiment, the angles 16 included be tweenthe axes 9 of the inner nozzles and the plane 28 are 7 whereas theangles 16' are 14, these values being highly advantageous for mostpurposes.

The forward end of the plate 8 is rounded circularly as shown at 19 andmerges with the rearwardly convergent flanks 31 of this plate (FIG. 2)while the axes 9, extended forwardly, intersect at 18 with one anotherwith the intersection of the rounded leading edge 19 and the plane 28.The symmetrical arrangement of the nozzles and the forwardly convergentconfiguration of the plate 8 prevent twisting of the body 3 in the planeof the paper (FIG. 2) and thus facilitate the direct advance of the bodyinto the waste conduit. The runners 11, moreover, function as guidesrestrictive of lateral movement of the devices as they engage the sludgeor sediment and pass through the liquid within the waste conduit. Waterat high velocity is pumped through the pipe 2 and is ejected in asheet-like discharge 32 of liquid (FIG. 1) thereby advancing the body 3in the forward direction (arrow 30) while loosening sediment and sludgeas the jets impinge thereon. When the head 3 is advanced into the pipe,it can be withdrawn and the jets then scoop loose the sediment andsludge which is conveyed along the pipe.

The invention described and illustrated is believed to admit of manymodifications within the ability of persons skilled in the art, all suchmodifications being considered within the spirit and scope of theappended claims.

We claim:

1. A self-propelled head for the cleaning of waste conduits, comprisinga generally fiat nozzle body having a rear nozzle portion "and a guideportion connected with and extending forwardly over said nozzle portion;a generally planar array of nozzles mounted in said nozzle portion fordirecting respective jets of a cleaning liquid rearwardly from saidbody, said guide portion having a skid plane for supporting said bodyupon its advance through a waste conduit including an acute angle withthe plane of said array; and pipe means connected with said body forsupplying a liquid at high pressure to said nozzles.

2. A head as defined in claim 1 wherein said guide portion is formedwith a guide plate lying substantially in said plane of said nozzles anda plurality of runners extending from said plate and defining said skidulane, said runners extending longitudinally in the direction of advanceof said body into said conduit.

3. A head as defined in claim 2, a corresponding number of said runnersare formed on opposite sides of said plate and define respective skidplanes inclined rearwardly at respective acute angles to said plane ofsaid array.

4. A head as defined in claim 3 wherein said nozzles are symmetricallydisposed on opposite sides of a transverse median plane through saidbody penpendicular to said plane of said array.

5. A head as defined in claim 4 wherein said nozzles have axesconvergent forwardly in the direction of movement of said body andintersecting at said median plane.

6. A head as defined in claim 5 wherein said axes of said nozzlesintersect at the leading edge of said plate.

7. A head as defined in claim 6 wherein said leading edge is convex inthe direction of movement of said body into said conduit.

8. A head as defined in claim 7 wherein said plate has lateral edgesmerging with said leading edge and convergent in the direction thereof.

9. A head as defined in claim 2 wherein said nozzle portion is abulb-shaped arrangement integral with said plate, said nozzle portionbeing provided with a bore in the plane of said array communicating withsaid nozzles, said pipe means being connected with said enlargement at alocation intermediate said nozzles.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2/1923 Sladden l34167 9/1956Tharp 134-168 XR

1. A SELF-PROPELLED HEAD FOR THE CLEANING OF WASTE CONDUITS, COMPRISINGA GENERALLY FLAT NOZZLE BODY HAVING A REAR NOZZLE PORTION AND A GUIDEPORTION CONNECTED WITH AND EXTENDING FORWARDLY OVER SAID NOZZLE PORTION;A GENERALLY PLANAR ARRAY OF NOZZLES MOUNTED IN SAID NOZZLE PORTION FORDIRECTING RESPECTIVE JETS OF A CLEANING LIQUID REARWARDLY FROM SAIDBODY, SAID GUIDE PORTION HAVING A SKID PLANE FOR SUPPORTING SAID BODYUPON ITS ADVANCE THROUGH A WASTE CONDUIT INCLUDING AN ACUTE ANGLE WITHTHE PLANE OF SAID ARRAY; AND PIPE MEANS CONNECTED WITH SAID BODY FORSUPPLYING A LIQUID AT HIGH PRESSURE TO SAID NOZZLES.